Highlights
Series
Explore
Pre-season FIA Formula 3000 Championship favourite Vitantonio Liuzzi scored a dominant maiden victory in the first round of the series at Imola today (Saturday). The Arden International driver led from start-to-finish from Enrico Toccacelo and rookie Robert Doornbos.
So accomplished was Liuzzi's victory that even during the now obligatory pitstops he did not lose his lead. BCN's Toccacelo closed the gap to Liuzzi after the stops initially until the Arden driver stopped the rot to win by a canter.
Doornbos, in the second Arden car, had an excellent F3000 debut to finish on the podium having started sixth on the grid. CMS Performance driver Jose Maria Lopez was heading for third after an impressive performance when he crashed at the Variante Alta chicane. Indeed the Argentinian had just set the fastest lap of the race when he ran over the kerbs and thumped the wall hard enough to destroy the right side of his car.
Raffaele Giammaria finished fourth for AEZ ahead of F3000 veteran Tomas Enge who would likely have finished higher for Ma-Con had he not been forced to endure a poor pitstop. Belgian Jeffrey van Hooydonk slipped from third on the grid to finish sixth ahead of Durango's Yannick Schroeder.
British Formula 3 champion Alan van der Merwe scored the final point on his F3000 debut for Super Nova.
